Longneck wrote:
BlueDragon wrote:
If both ship were turning or moving forward, the bigger one wins (House Rule)
This was put in the rules because it was originally coded like that. The boardgame is actually a random roll regardless of size.
You're right, I guess we should remove it to follow our "no-house-rules-if-possible", although we can't provide the original random-winner-decides-who-enters mechanism.
Actually we could put an option in the move window to select if you want to have an "aggressive" attitude (occupy the hex) or a "cautious" one (let the enemy occupy the hex) in case a collision occurs. But it may make the interface more cumbersome without great benefit.
Longneck wrote:
Also, on the new drifting rule where ships drift during normal movement. See V.C.3: "Ships will drift into a new hex on the last move of a phase." So they should still move last.
Maybe I have made a mistake, I haven't re-read that part before making the change and its meaning is not 100% clear.
The current interpretation of that rule in the code is that drifting is the last thing a ship will do in its movement phase. That is, it will first turn (if it wants) and then drift.
However, V.C.3 could also mean that drift has to occur after all have moved (so it would be like a separate drifting phase, as the code run before!).
Longneck wrote:
I occasionally time a move with an enemy's drift, but without backing sails you can't move into a hex that's being drifted out of. Does this mean you can now? Say I'm two hexes away and move into the hex of a ship that's drifting -- will we collide?
Given what I said before, if you are right next to a drifting ship, you can immediately enter the hex the ship is leaving (unless it turns first), without backing sails.
Honestly, this is one of the reasons that motivated the change: why can't I enter the hex a drifting ship is leaving like I do for other ships who leave their hex?
The second reason was that the way it was intended before, drifting basically took place in a different phase while in the boardgame there is not such a phase.
A third reason to take the current meaning (instead of the "separate phase" one) is that in certain occasion, you could not keep your ship adjacent to a drifting one without colliding and fouling. I noticed this in an Ambuscade vs Baionaise game.
Imagine that there is a frigate drifting: it drifts every turn following the wind, moving away from you and you are pointing to that ship. Your only chance to keep your ship adjacent to the frigate was to collide with it. Infact, if you just move your ship adjacent to it, the frigate will drift away. If you try to move one more hex to take into account drifting, you will collide with the ship as the drifting will only happen after your move (even if you used backing sails!) and you may foul with it. If you want to melee with it, no problem, just go and collide but what if it's a friendly ship or you just want to fire a broadside from distance 1?
This is basically the same of your question: can I enter an hex a ship is drifting out of? The answer, with the simultaneous movement, is yes.
With the previous interpreation, the answer was: never.
However, there are things, possible before, which are now not possible: for example using the old interpreation you could, in attitude A with 4 movements, move your ship alongside a drifting one and completely pass it without colliding. Now you can't because it will drift against you while you are moving alongside.
I think that, while Rule V.C.3 is ambiguos enough to suggest a "drifting phase after all other movements", the simultaneous interpretation makes more sense.
Infact, if you think that ships actually move continuosly and not in "discrete jumps", it makes more sense that you can slowly follow a drifting frigate and that you can't fully move alongside it without a collision instead of the opposite.
I guess I convinced myself again that the change was correct |
